Chapter 12 Language extensions

14 Extensible variant types

• 14.1 Private extensible variant types

(Introduced in OCaml 4.02)

Extensible variant types are variant types which can be extended with new variant constructors. Extensible variant types are defined using ... New variant constructors are added using +=.

module Expr = struct
  type attr = ..

  type attr += Str of string

  type attr +=
    | Int of int
    | Float of float
end

Pattern matching on an extensible variant type requires a default case to handle unknown variant constructors:

let to_string = function
  | Expr.Str s -> s
  | Expr.Int i -> Int.to_string i
  | Expr.Float f -> string_of_float f
  | _ -> "?"

A preexisting example of an extensible variant type is the built-in exn type used for exceptions. Indeed, exception constructors can be declared using the type extension syntax:

type exn += Exc of int

Extensible variant constructors can be rebound to a different name. This allows exporting variants from another module.

# let not_in_scope = Str "Foo";;

Error: Unbound constructor Str

type Expr.attr += Str = Expr.Str

# let now_works = Str "foo";;

val now_works : Expr.attr = Expr.Str "foo"

Extensible variant constructors can be declared private. As with regular variants, this prevents them from being constructed directly by constructor application while still allowing them to be de-structured in pattern-matching.

module B : sig
  type Expr.attr += private Bool of int
  val bool : bool -> Expr.attr
end = struct
  type Expr.attr += Bool of int
  let bool p = if p then Bool 1 else Bool 0
end

# let inspection_works = function
    | B.Bool p -> (p = 1)
    | _ -> true;;

val inspection_works : Expr.attr -> bool = 

# let construction_is_forbidden = B.Bool 1;;

Error: Cannot use private constructor Bool to create values of type Expr.attr

14.1 Private extensible variant types

(Introduced in OCaml 4.06)

Extensible variant types can be declared private. This prevents new constructors from being declared directly, but allows extension constructors to be referred to in interfaces.

module Msg : sig
  type t = private ..
  module MkConstr (X : sig type t end) : sig
    type t += C of X.t
  end
end = struct
  type t = ..
  module MkConstr (X : sig type t end) = struct
    type t += C of X.t
  end
end